Julian Assange’s wife in clemency plea to Joe Biden

The wife of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is petitioning the British government’s decision to extradite him to the US, has appealed for clemency to President Joe Biden.

Julian Assange’s wife Stella. Picture: AFP

The wife of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is petitioning the British government’s decision to extradite him to the US, has appealed for clemency to President Joe Biden.

The Australian publisher is the object of a US extradition request to face trial for divulging US military secrets about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Biden could end this any time. It’s not in the administration’s interests for Julian to be tried during an election period,” Stella Assange said while speaking to the Geneva Press Club.

“The UK is … giving off the signals that it is kind of accelerating and wants Julian extradited. So Julian could very well be extradited by the end of the summer. The Biden administration would have to deal with that and I don’t think that’s in their interest.”

Assange, 52, is being prosecuted in the US for having published 700,000 confidential documents related to US military and diplomatic activities, starting in 2010.

He could face decades in prison, and his supporters portray him as a martyr for press freedom.

Assange was arrested by British police in 2019 after spending seven years holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced accusations of sexual assault.

He has been held for the past four years in Belmarsh, in east London.

“The smart thing” for Mr Biden to do “would be to just stop it and end it”, Ms Assange said.

The issue of the extradition was “a Trump-era legacy” and represented “a threat” for democracy and the press, she said.

The British government agreed last year to his extradition but Assange appealed. His wife said the appeal was rejected about a month ago but a new petition for review had been filed.

AFP